Making a photographic portrait is an intimate, collaborative endeavor, requiring both photographer and subject to work together to create a compelling image. The best portraits are often as much a reflection of the maker as they are of the subject.

In this five-day workshop, photographer Jess T. Dugan creates an open, supportive, and engaging environment in which participants investigate their motivations for making portraits, strengthen their skills working with people, and engage deeply with issues in contemporary photography.

Through critiques, presentations of classic and contemporary portrait photographers, demonstrations, and the daily creation of new photographs, we investigate the elements that make a compelling portrait, including composition, lighting, subject, pose, gesture, and environment. To cultivate the skills that result in compelling portraits, we use digital capture, digital workflow, and digital printmaking with Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop. While these elements require foundational technical knowledge, we focus primarily on the emotional and conceptual elements of portrait photography, developing strategies for working with subjects, including strangers, family, friends, and the self.

Jess T. Dugan is an artist whose work explores issues of gender, sexuality, identity, and community. She has been photographing within LGBTQ communities for the past decade and is deeply committed to the transformative power of photographic portraiture. Her work is regularly exhibited internationally and is in the permanent collections of several major museums. Her first monograph, Every Breath We Drew, was published in 2015, and coincided with a solo museum exhibition at the Cornell Fine Arts Museum at Rollins College, in Winter Park, Florida. Jess is the recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant and was selected by the White House as a 2015 Champion of Change. Her website is www.jessdugan.com.